'Police Women of Broward County' reality show targeted by public defender

FORT LAUDERDALE — The reality TV show "Police Women of Broward County" is under fire again.

Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein wants to know if there is any sort of incentive pay or benefits given to deputies who appear on TLC's Thursday night cable program that may taint testimony against his clients.

He's demanding that the state attorney and county sheriff reveal the officers' confidential contracts.

Spokesmen for the sheriff and state attorney say they don't have the contracts. The state attorney's office and the TV show's lawyer both say a judge should review the legal agreements for any possible conflict.

"This is about a witness's motive, not trade secrets," Finkelstein said about his efforts to reveal salaries and other rewards for the programs' stars, Broward Sheriff's deputies Andrea Penoyer, Julie Bower, Shelunda Cooper and Erika Huerta.

Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti said the officers' TV roles do not conflict with enforcing the law.

"The fact that they are on television does not negate the probable cause the deputies had to make the arrests," Lamberti said.

A spokeswoman for TLC/Discovery Communications had no comment.

The show has drawn complaints during the past two seasons.

After the 2009 season ended, Pompano Beach officials said they did not want the TV production there again and denied permit applications. Producers continued to film in the city, though, and a former community activist was arrested in April during a prostitution sting that was recorded for the program.

Mayor Lamar Fisher said Tuesday that "the cries came from the community that said the program showed them in a bad light."

Crime victims have complained about their treatment by officers and the show. Arrestees have said that they have been pressured to sign release forms to appear on it and at least three were paid to do so, the public defender's office says.

Lamberti said the producers did not want to digitize faces of anyone who appears on camera.

"For witnesses and bystanders, I told them if they won't sign a release, they can't pressure them," Lamberti said, "and that paying prisoners is unacceptable. And they terminated that practice."

A Pompano Beach rape victim said she was pressured by Bower to tell her story on camera, and her co-star, Cooper, was criticized by the wife of a stabbing victim who said the officer grabbed her by the arm when she resisted being interviewed on camera at the bloody scene.

"We reviewed raw video and those allegations were not factual," Lamberti said about the stabbing incident. "The video did not support that."

There are seven cases so far that the public defender's office is reviewing; two involve juveniles. Four of the five cases are against adults who face felony charges.

"When [television shows] decide to get involved with the justice system, they have to play by our rules," Finkelstein said. "In my world, people get sentenced to death or go to prison. They are putting it on camera for profit. And we're entitled to know if they have a motive other than justice."

Finkelstein said he will seek the contract in "every instance in which one of these four police officers is involved until I get the contract or an appellate court tells me to shut up."

Broward Sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said the contract between the agency and TLC's producer RelativityReal pays $3,000 per episode to the Sheriff's Foundation of Broward County, a charitable fund.

The other contracts are separate deals between the producers and each of the officers, who Leljedal says are paid by the show for their off-duty time.

Assistant State Attorney Jeff Marcus said, "The compensation with the contract, what I am told, is for off duty because they are filmed at home or the beach or wherever they film them."

BSO shared its contract with Finkelstein.

"He's looking for the personal contracts between the officers and the show, and we don't have that," Leljedal said. "We've been hearing these arguments for as long as we've been on "COPS," that these arrests are made because they make good TV. But that's not the case."

That may be so, but there is a difference: Leljedal said that to the best of his knowledge, the officers who appeared on "COPS," which began on Fox 22 years ago and featured then-Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro, did not get paid.

TLC's lawyer Dana McElroy, who has represented media companies including the Sun Sentinel, could not be reached for comment.

In one of the seven cases, a man was charged in January with selling cocaine to an undercover officer inside Scarlett's Cabaret. McElroy moved to quash Finkelstein's request for Penoyer's contract after her arrest of the man in the Hallandale strip club's parking lot was broadcast on the show.

McElroy wrote that Penoyer's role in that incident was limited, that her contract has no pay incentives for the number of arrests she makes and is not relevant to the arrestee's defense.